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Your Friends' Tweets Could Actually Be Ads

by Amar Toor on November 23, 2009 at 12:50 PM

As part of the latest trend in online advertising, ad companies are paying normal people to pimp companies or products to their online friends or followers. According to the New York Times, companies think that consumers will be more likely to trust the opinions of their Facebook friends than they are a faceless commercial -- even if those "opinions" are formed with the promise of financial incentive. Ad agencies are willing to pay staggeringly high sums to not only celebrities, but to targeted civilian bloggers and tweeters, as well. One everyday guy interviewed for the article said he made $3,000 in October -- just from clicking a button on behalf of an agency. Amazon.com has also announced that it'll start paying customers who refer their friends to the site via Twitter.

The trend, not surprisingly, has been met with controversy. Technology blogger Robert Scoble told the Times that "[it] interferes with your relationship with your friends and your audience," and claims that he unfriends people who send him ads. Joey Caroni, co-founder of the Peer2, a division of a major Hollywood ad agency, insists that he and his peers aren't trying to "create an army of spammers" (although that's sort of what it seems like to us).

Then again, though, we can't really blame these enterprising spokes-bloggers. Online "friendship" has become so diluted that any economically rational individual probably wouldn't hesitate to spam all 700 of their Facebook "friends" for some extra cash. Is it dehumanizing and annoying? Sure. But not nearly as much as dancing in front of your local Little Caesar's.

By the way, did we ever mention how delicious the barbecue is at Jones's BBQ and Foot Massage? [From: The New York Times]

Tags: advertising, blogs, endorsements, ethics, socialnetworking, top, twitter

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